Csquared Fall/Winter 2012 Review

 For their Fall/Winter 2012 collection, Wayne Govender (the newly appointed Csqaured Designer) presented a collection inspired by Russian Royalty, Revolution and Uniform tailoring.

The Details:

This was reflected in the deep and jewel tones that were shown throughout the collection, namely deep emerald/bottle green, espresso, camel, violet and sapphire. Prints such as bold plaid, paisley and checks were featured in suits, trousers, shirts and scarves with tailored double breasted coats shown in classic greys.

Sequined, deep cut single buttoned jackets were a definite high light of the show, along with smoking jackets in rich fabrics gave a warm-winter feel to the collection.

Accessories shown included Bow-ties, scarves, suspenders, badges, leather bags, hats, hard leather belts and army-inspired tassels which added a masculine and military feel to the collection.

My Thoughts:

I think the collection was really good, but I (personally) had a few problems with it.

(If anyone from Csquared reads this, I am not ripping the collection, it is just my constructive criticism.)

Firstly, I think the styling was off in a few of the looks. Like the one above, whilst I am all for mixing prints, patterns, colours, etc, I think the look above had too many contrasting prints. Sure, I am all for mixing prints, but with a maximum of two, and they must have some complimenting aspects, such as each patterned piece sharing one colour that is the same. 

I like this above look, but I think the waistcoat should have been the same purple as the pants, or have the same colour print. 

Secondly, some of the collection didn't feel very much like a "Fall/Winter" collection, because of the cropped pants and the hats shown. For me, cropped pants are something you wear in Summer like on a yacht or like just chilling in a café, not really in winter.
Sure, South Africa isn't the coldest of places, but I wouldn't wear cropped pants in Winter.


My Third fault is that, in saying the collection is "Russian" inspired, then that theme should be carried through the whole collection. The only real vibe I got of the Russian theme was in the beginning when Russian inspired music was played, and some of the outfits having tassels and military accents.
Maybe that is just me, as John Galliano's Fall/Winter collection was also Russian Inspired and that is one my favourite collections.
It maybe a good thing that the collection maybe wasn't as strongly influenced by the Russian theme, because fashion like the one shown in the Galliano collection is more higher fashion and would not appeal to the South African market, which is much more commercial and not very experimental.

My favourite pieces from the collection was the coloured Smoking Jacket in the deep blue, that is defiantly something I will be looking at getting, and the coloured brogues in yellow.

All in all, I think that the collection was very good, and the clothing was very beautiful and impeccably tailored and will appeal to the South African Man and add something new and different to the South African market.

Thank you to SocialWoo and Csquared!

Wayne Govender (Csquared Designer) and Mark Gooding (Head of Brands)

and in case you were wondering, 

Mvelo Ncube won the Csquared #Topswag social media competition and won R30,000 in Csquared clothing.

(Images and Information from: csquaredsa.tumblr.com/post/19179315838/csquared-menswear-mbfwj-csquared-red-topswag)